20 Best Business Books

Finding a good business book can be over whelming sometimes. That’s why we have put together a list of the 20 best business books that we have both read. Some of these have been on our business book club, but some of these we haven’t covered yet.

Start With Why is a really great book that has the power to give you an entirely new perspective on life. It does tend to repeat itself a little but it is probably just to try and hammer in the gems of information it has in it. It is a must read if you are in the starting stages of a business or in a motivational lull.

If you don’t feel like this is something that would interest you check out Sineks TED Talk as it might just change your mind.

Is this the right time for you to be starting your new venture? Do you have the right team? Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see? These are some of the question that this book will make you ask yourself.

Zero to One can give you a fresh insight to why you are doing what you are doing. It uncovers the common motives behind entrepreneurs. It covers many areas of business including strategy and innovation and much more.

It is not a massively long book and can be read thoroughly from cover to cover in a few days if you have them time.

This is a classic marketing book and is still applicable to many businesses today. It may be hard to see at first exactly you can implement the best parts of this book in your business, but with a little thought this can be worth its weight in Taffeit.

When this book was first published it was grounding breaking and truly shook up the marketing industry. A lot of the content of Guerrilla Marketing has become gospel in the marketing world, which means that you may have heard some of it before. There are still some gems in there that you may not have come across yet.

This comes highly recommend for anyone that wants to start learning about marketing as it builds the foundations of so many marketing strategies today.

Predictably Irrational is a book on consumer behaviour and as the title suggests, how irrational it can be. This book covers loads of stuff like Anchoring, Zero Cost, Social Norms, Influence of Arousal plus much more.

We decided to put Predictably Irrational in our list of the best business books as it is an enjoyable read, however, a lot of the same content gets covered in Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. This does have many of its own merits and is a lot easier to read than Thinking, Fast and Slow.

4-Hour Workweek could easily be said to be the rise of the digital nomad movement that has recently exploded across the world. This book covers loads of interesting lifestyle ideas, but simply put is about how to quit your job and become location independent. Mainly The author Tim Ferris is a really interesting guy and you should check out some of his other books like 4-Hour Chef (hint: it’s not a cook book).

This is a book that we have bought many of our friends who are miserable in their jobs. Some of the information is a little out-dated now, but it is still really funny and has such a great outlook on how to make the most of your life.

Seth Godin has written 18 international best selling books. He has an ability to simplify the fundamental parts of the subject matters that he covers. This will leave you feeling like an idiot for not thinking it before, but also with some fresh inspiration for your marketing strategy.

Purple Cow is one of Godin’s most popular books but it does come with some critics. If you look at the reviews on Amazon you will be able to see this as clear as day. The reason we like Seth’s books so much, is that they are generally quite short and easy to digest and can be perfect company on long journeys. You won’t find a step by step guide in Purple Cow, but you will find some inspiration and perhaps a fresh perspective.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuassion is paradigm switching. We had to put it on our list of the best business books as it has changed the way so many business leaders work and think. Once you have read this you will see why.

Caldini neither over complicates or dumb downs the subject and makes his point in a very convincing way. Even if you aren’t interested in using this book to help sell your products or services, you may want to read it to help you protect against it.

This is thought to be THE book on success. We had to put it in our list as so many of the richest and most successful people in the world attribute their success somewhat to this book that was originally published in 1937.

This is a timeless classic that is a must read for anyone trying to make substantial changes to their lives. You would be hard pushed to find someone that is unmoved by this classic. Definitely a must read.

If you are planning on diving in to the start-up world then you have to read this book. Ries explains an almost scientific process to help the success rate of the projects you are involved in.

The Lean Startup has become the go to business bible of many startup’s head offices. It is massively insightful and can help you make you sell the products or services that your customers actually want to buy.

How effective you are as an executive or a business leader can be learned. If you feel like you could improve as a leader, this is a good place to start looking. Drucker has included many timeless lessons in The Effective Executive that will be able to dramatically even a good leader.

Other authors have now covered much of the information in this book, but we would still recommend you reading this, as it is always good to go to the source of any industry changing information.

Find that you are having conversation with people that aren’t getting anywhere? Find it difficult to address the root of a problem? Maybe you are going through a power struggle in a personal relationship! Crucial Conversations will help you get tings back on track.

This comes highly recommended from both of us as we have found it useful in all of our businesses.

The Innovators Dilemma is a great book on the choices that faces someone in the position of improving products or services. Christensen talks about how products innovation can be incremental or radical. He also asks you to assess whether or not your business is ready for one approach or the other.

If you are a fan of technological changes, or don’t want to be left behind in the on going technological evolution then this is a book for you.

So perhaps more of a handbook than traditional business book Business Model Generation still earns its place on our list of the best business books. All of the information is up to date and can be implemented on most businesses today.

Co-created by 470 “Business Model Canvas” practitioners from 45 countries, Business Model Generation give you serious business strategies in an easily digestible format.

Most businesses will need to raise funds at some point if they want to amp up growth. Don’t worry if this is not something you feel confident or comfortable with. It can be a slightly daunting task for people that have raised millions of dollars for multiple startups. With The Art of Startup Fundraising you will get lots of easy to understand advice that is applicable for a range of Fundraising targets.

We highly recommend this book if you are at the stage of fundraising in your business or startup.

We felt like we had to include this in our list of the top 20 business business books even though it has been widely criticized for its teachings. A wide range of famous business people and investors have cited this book as having influence on them.

Many people find its lessons teach people to be ungenuine and manipulative. Whilst this is certainly easy to see, there are also some lessons on human behaviour that can help you understand people a little better.

Gary Keller is a successful real estate tycoon turned international bestseller. The One Thing is not just another stomach turning, you can do it, self improvement book. It is a short, concise guide on getting where you want to be in life and covers Pareto’s 80/20 rule, the domino effect and habit formation.

Malcolm Gladwell is one of the greatest thinkers of our time. Although not all of his books are strictly business based, we would highly recommend you check them out.

Outliers – The Story of Success is talks about the underlying reasons that some people end up becoming successful. It talks a lot about the 10,000 hour rule. This is the concept that it takes 10,000 hours for a person to truly master something.

Maybe the audiobook version of this masterpiece would be better suited for a lot of people. It is by far the driestbook on our list. In-between nodding off however you will find some absolute gems on human behaviour and that is why we added it to our list.

In truth, only one of us finished this because the other one couldn’t stay awake. That is why we think the audio book version is a must!

This is a fantastic book on leadership. We find that the majority of books on this subject are by people who think that they are leaders but are most likely totalitarian tyrants that got results by scaring people in to working hard.

Turn the Ship Around! is a enjoyable story with some valuable life lessons within it.

Last but by no means least. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has influenced people from all corners of the globe. You only have to read the numerous testimonials at the front from industry leaders to see its impact on the world. We deliberately ended our list with this timeless classic that is almost 3 decades old.

Even though this has been around for many years, the lessons have been around for even longer and Covey never denies this point. He is not talking about anything new, he just has put the information in 7 easily remembered steps to let people make the most of their lives.

What do you think? Would any of these be in your best business book list? Comment below to let us know!

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